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Saskatchewan Lawyer News

Judge to hand decision on fatal hit and run February yet

Robert Duane Barisoff will have to wait a little longer to know how much time he will be spending in jail after he submitted a guilty plea to offences resulting to Kelton Desnomie's death.

The judge had decided to reserve his decision for February after hearing sentencing submissions of both the Crown and the defence.

Court heard that Barisoff was driving a jeep when he fatally hit an intoxicated Desnomie.

He stopped and someone went down to check on Desnomie. However, Barisoff drove off without checking or assisting the victim despite the protest of his companion.

Even though he left, Barisoff still surrendered and confessed to the police on the same day.

Barisoff was not drunk nor speeding but the Crown is asking that he be jailed for about a year and be banned from driving for two years because he had left the scene without any concern for Desnomie, who was 18 at the time of his death.

Regina lawyer Jeremy Ellergodt, Barisoff's defence counsel, said that his client had panicked which was why he left but he still regretted what he did.

The lawyer added that Barisoff only deserves a three-month jail stay and a driving ban of one year citing his client's surrender and confession.

Inmate has sentence lengthened to eight years following brawl in prison

Posted Nov 07, 2014 on saskatoon.ctvnews.ca

James Longneck sees his sentence of more than six years in prison for manslaughter lengthened to eight years for his part in a prison brawl for which he submitted a guilty plea to attempted murder.

The incident happened last April which Saskatoon criminal lawyer Brian Pfefferle, defending for Longneck, described as related to gang rivalry.

A surveillance video shows that the fight started when three of the prisoners confronted two of the other inmates and the situation escalated from there.

Pfefferle pointed to the video which shows that his client only got into the fight when he helped one of the accused.

The victim suffered several stab wounds but fortunately, none of them were fatal.

Prison sentence for woman who stabbed to death another woman

Posted Oct 31, 2014 on regina.ctvnews.ca

Melanie Bird received a sentence of 12 years in prison after she submitted a guilty plea to manslaughter for the death of Heather Lavallee in 2013.

Bird was initially facing a murder charge but she was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter, which is a lesser charge.

It was clear that Bird was remorseful of what she did by admitting the offence to the police immediately and writing an apology letter as soon as she was apprehended.

Bird was intoxicated when she entered a home where Lavallee was at in search for pills.

The two women got into an argument which ended with Lavallee sustaining several stab wounds that led to her death.

Regina criminal lawyer James Struthers, defending for Bird, said that his client had turned to drugs and alcohol after her mother died.

The sentence was a joint recommendation by the Crown and defence but Bird will only spend a little less than 10 years behind bars after she was credited for time spent in remand.

Traffic tickets to increase with installation of new photo radar cameras

Posted Sep 17, 2014 on www.thestarphoenix.com

The issuance of traffic tickets may increase with the installation of photo radar cameras on Circle Drive with one to be used solely for school zones.

If a driver goes beyond the 90-kilometre speed limit on Circle Drive, he will be issued a fine of $110 with an addition of $1 for every one kilometre in excess of the speed limit.

The fine is higher in the school zones with the base fine pegged at $190 with an addition of $2 per kilometre excess of the speed limit.

According to the Saskatchewan Government Insurance, drivers usually records an average speed limit of 98 kilometres on Circle Drive.

Saskatoon lawyer Lisa Watson said that for a judge to throw out a traffic ticket, he or she must be convinced that the driver was under the impression that he was driving within the speed limit.

The photo radar cameras will be installed in the middle of October.

A visa would make it easier for adopted foreign children to get to Canada

Posted Aug 28, 2014 on www.thestarphoenix.com

It has been a year ago since the Halstead legally adopted a baby boy named Seth from Congo but they have yet to see him in person.

Since the adoption, the couple have been working hard to bring Seth, who is now one-year-old to Canada, but they are caught in the middle of immigration policies between their country and Congo.

Immigration officials of Congo have refused to issue an exit permit for Seth pending the issuance of a Canadian visa.

Canada immigration officials, on the other hand, have refused to give Seth a visa not until Congo can produce the exit documents.

Canada Lawyer News

Woman jailed for fraud amounting to about half a million dollars

Holly Jean Cardinal was meted with a three-year prison term following her guilty plea of having stolen $260,000 from a veterinary clinic wherein she was working as an administrator.

However, the Guardian Veterinary Centre was not the only employer that the 54-year-old Cardinal stole from because while she was working there, she was also undergoing trial for having embezzled $296,000 from her previous employer, the Allen Services and Contracting Ltd, where she had been working as a bookkeeper for a long time.

The judge found it aggravating that Cardinal continued to commit fraud with her new employer while she was undergoing trial for the same crime she committed from her previous employer.

In fact, she had pleaded guilty to those charges on the day she was asked by the vet clinic to leave under the suspicion that she was stealing from them.

The vet office, however, could not nail her for embezzlement for lack of evidence.

Cardinal confessed to stealing from the vet clinic while she was serving her sentence for her first fraud conviction.

Walter Raponi, a criminal lawyer in Edmonton, said that Cardinal resorted to stealing from her employers after she turned to gambling following a relationship that became abusive.

Calgary defence lawyer says client was wrongly accused

Sandoval-Barillas is on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a then 16-year-old girl October of 2013 close to the Rundle LRT station. He has also been accused of threatening her with a weapon.

Milczarek told the jury that the victim is accusing his client whom she did see at the LRT Station minutes before the assault happened.

The lawyer further added that because the victim was intoxicated, she had wrongly assumed that it was his client who had assaulted her but that it wasn't him and someone else.

However, the crown prosecutor has contradicted Milczarek's defense of his client and said that Sandoval-Barillas' claim that he had left the station a few minutes after the victim did to get a cab and not to follow and assault her, was not believable.

A video taken by surveillance cameras had the two taking a train at the Whitehorn station.

The case has been submitted to the jury for deliberation.

Man refutes murder allegations

Posted Jun 29, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

Kevin Rubletz is denying that he had a hand in the death of his former girlfriend, Jessica Newman, whose body was found in May.

Newman was first reported missing in March before her body was found in a ditch.

Rubletz and Newman shared a child and had been reportedly locked in a custody battle.

Calgary criminal lawyer Brendan Miller is representing Rubletz, who is facing a second-degree murder in relation to Newman's death.

Miller said that he is still waiting for the disclosure from the Crown and that there is a possibility that his client will be seeking bail.

Custody ends for young murder convict

Posted Mar 27, 2015 on www.therecord.com

A young man, who was convicted for second-degree murder, will soon be integrated back into the community as he starts with the next phase of his sentence which is community supervision.

The youth was sentenced to a little less than two years in jail and a five-year community supervision for the stabbing death of Larry McDonald, 49.

The convict, who is now 21 years old, cannot be named as he was only 16 when he stabbed McDonald several times in the back.

The victim was trying to intervene in an argument between the youth and his older girlfriend.

A report showed how the youth has been making progress in changing for the better by taking part in all rehabilitative programs available for him while in jail.

As soon as he gets out of jail, he will live with his mother and has to abide by various conditions including a curfew.

Kitchener defence lawyer Craig Parry said the youth understands that his return to society will not be easy considering that he had spent about five years of his life in custody. He had previously spent about three years in jail while his case had gone through the court.

High Court decides popular pizza chain can't end franchise

Posted Mar 11, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

The Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that Domino's Canada cannot end the franchise of a pizza store in North Vancouver based on an unproven accusation.

Domino's Canada had informed the francise operated by Farhad "Alex" Iranmanesh and Keyvan Iranmanesh that it is terminating its contract after conducting its own probe on allegations that the brothers have exploited two of their employees.

Dakota Gervais-Brulhart and Blake Dearman have filed a complaint that they weren't paid and when they did not go to work to protest the wrongdoing, they were assaulted and even received death threats.

The Iranmanesh brothers, however, claimed the allegations are still unproven and they asked for an injunction order to stop Domino's Canada from ending their franchise.

Other employees of the Iranmanesh brothers also denied the claims of the complainant employees.

The judge approved the order saying that Domino's Canada cannot end its contract with the Iranmanesh brothers based on allegations that have not been proven whether true or not.

The disgruntled employees vowed to stick to their claims while Domino's Canada also said it will fight the injunction.